Recently I wrote this post about Bardroy and the ‘code’ about how Bardroy asking about collecting wages is really a code between him and Sebastian. This code not only told Bardroy what he was to do next, it also calmed the moment and helped to protect the other servants.
When I was working on the post, one question that I kept wondering was how much Bardroy knew exactly about the situation. Was this code something worked up in advance or did he come up with it on the spot? If it was something that Sebastian and Bardroy had come up with previously, it brings up the question whether or not that Bardroy is privy to a bit more information than the other servants. I’m not suggesting he knows everything because I don’t think that he does, but it’s possible that he knows a bit more.
Of the three servants of Bardroy, Mey-Rin, and Finnian, we only really know much about sweet Finny. Bardoy and Mey-Rin’s backstories have been left mostly in the dark. It appears that Mey-Rin was some sort of assassin sent to kill our!Ciel at some point.
She also said later on to Agni that she hadn’t been allowed to wear dresses and skirts before becoming a maid.
Bardroy had been a soldier.
He even appeared to be the only survivor of some sort of battle, but we don’t know much more about him.
However, in times the servants have needed to act when Sebastian wasn’t around, like back in the circus arc, it was Bardroy who took charge. This could be because he’s the oldest with the most battle experience. In fact that makes sense, but there’s also a chance that Bardroy does have a bit more of an idea of what is happening.
There’s a similar situation in the manor murders arc. There are multiple times that Bardroy is seen taking a bit of a leadership role. Again, I don’t think Bardroy knew everything, but he was the one that quickly explained a wet (and supposedly dead) Sebastian as being the result of a leak.
Of course, this would be logical in this situation. At the same time, Bardroy was providing a reasonable explanation for Sebastian’s wet state without drawing any suspicion towards Sebastian.
There’s also one other thing that I find interesting. Look at these panels where the servants were ‘found.’
Do you notice anything different about Bardroy? In both the scene with Mey-Rin and Finny, our!Ciel is present and looking at them – and we know for a fact that our!Ciel chose Finny. It could have been the same for Mey-Rin, although we have no idea at this point. We do not see our!Ciel when Sebastian is looking at Bardroy. It could just be the angle. After all, we can only see Sebastian’s head meaning that if our!Ciel was beside Sebastian, he wouldn’t be tall enough to be seen. At the same time, it was a conscious decision to draw that scene from that angle. What if our!Ciel wasn’t there? Perhaps Mey-Rin and Finny were our!Ciel’s choices, but Sebastian was the one who chose Bardroy.
I recognize there’s a lot of speculation here, but I can’t help but wonder. How much does Bardroy really know?
Crack theory: the Phantomhive lineage is at the origin of the Watchdog duty
Very old idea related to ch103 & the GW arc overall that I never took the time to write.
Based on the fact that Claudia was most likely Vincent’s predecessor, which is implying that, when no more male heir available, using a woman from the Phantomhive family as the Watchdog was apparently a better alternative than giving the job to another nobleman loyal to the royal family.
@frederickabberline previously made a post explaining under which circumstances noble women could inherit anything, so it isn’t strange that Claudia was able to get that title. Still, the Watchdog position implies keeping control over the underworld, solving weird cases and cleaning up after the royal family, so it’s not exactly a normal position.
To keep it within a family specifically (the Phantomhives) could be a matter of keeping the Watchdog’s identity a secret, but…
…clearly ch132 and Vincent explain that, if no more heir, the whole thing goes back to the crown who decides who they’ll give it to next. So it’s probably Victoria who decided to give it to Claudia in the first place, allowing her to inherit despite being a woman (we don’t know when) and…
it’s also the Queen who decided that a 10 year old boy from the same family would receive that position.
So, assuming that the royal family intends on keeping the Watchdog duty as tightly related to the P family as possible, the question is why? Well, my answer for now would be the lineage thing.
Granted that we don’t know exactly what that lineage is yet, why it apparently has to be activated, etc, but it seems to at least have to do with being able to see/sense/detect supernatural beings. So far:
Ciel managed to spot the Shinigamis in ch103 despite them being invisible to normal human eyes at the time
the German Shinigamis said that “it runs in the family” so we can assume that it spans more than just two generations (so it’s most likely unrelated to whoever Cedric K. Ros- is)
And I’m of the opinion that it could probably be seen as useful if the royal family were to know about (and believe) it.
For now though, it’s hard to consider whether or not Victoria herself gave out hints that she might know about the lineage, because her absence of surprise towards Ciel’s report for the Weston arc could also be explained by John Brown most likely being supernatural and by her side, as many have guessed before.
The thing is, I find there is a possible analogy between the Watchdog’s duty
and Seb’s own situation as Ciel’s personal dog
Because Will basically said that a demon with a leash on (the contract & Seb’s own aesthetic) was better than free demons who would probably go around scavenging for souls that Shinigamis work hard to collect.
And it’s kinda the same if we’re considering that the Phantomhives are dogs to the royal family: putting a collar on them makes them less dangerous and more easy to keep under control (eventually hanging them with it if needs be, as UT pointed out), especially if what the royal family was originally interested in was how useful the Phantomhive lineage could be to them.
The other reason I came up with this theory is the Green Witch arc overall: again it’s just my opinion but, while the last part of the arc was really good, I have a few issues with the rest of it. I explained here why but, to sum up: compared to all the other arcs, the fake supernatural settings (werewolves, witch, curse/magic, etc) are rather unrelated to the true subplot (German army researching war weapons using a young genius), which is unusual and makes it too convenient as a result.
That being said, since I like to believe that Sensei does things for a reason, I’ve been thinking that maybe the fake supernatural settings of the GW arc are supposed to be relevant elsewhere in the story, kinda like how the murders at manor arc ended up being used as an introduction to the war suplot.
So initially, looking at what Sieglinde believed to be the truth, you get this story…
and let’s just say that this is a situation that could have easily been applied to the Phantomhive family, if anyone ever found out that they were “gifted”.
Again, we don’t know what the lineage is or where it comes from, but if Ciel’s ancestors ended up being hunted as heretics
at some point
because of it, then similarly to Sieglinde’s story, who knows if they didn’t agree to a pact with the royal family (the Watchdog duty), in exchange for their protection?
That pact gave the royal family the huge advantage to get their own little gifted dogs, generations after generations, and to use that special lineage indirectly for themselves…
…as long as they kept a tight leash on this family.
I’m aware it might appear a little far-fetched, especially when we don’t know what the lineage
really
is about yet, but that’s why it’s a crack theory.
To be honest though, I can’t help but also wonder about the timing of the lineage thing’s introduction by Sensei: ch103 is right during the final part of the GW arc after all, so it could be a coincidence or narratively meaningful because the settings of the arc do have some sort of link to that lineage stuff. :))
Let me know if anything is unclear! As always thanks for reading!!
I forgot to mention a few more details that might prove that the lineage is overall relevant to the main plot the other day. First…
…if the Phantomhive family is rumored to be gifted within occult circles, that could explain why this guy leading the cult from 4 years ago was so happy about having two of them as their lambs.
Think about it, if they believed in the occult to the point of thinking that summoning a demon was possible, then they might as well believe that there are some special humans out there.
Personally I don’t think that the twins having a special lineage influenced Seb’s summoning or anything, but maybe these people believed it might (amongst the many ways to justify their horrible actions towards the twins)?
Similarly, about the betrothal between Vincent’s heir and Elizabeth:
as far as we know, it happened when they were really young, probably at a time when no one knew for certain if Lizzie would even be as strong as her parents, so maybe it’s a consequence of the special lineage there again?
I mentioned it several times before, but for Frances to go along with the betrothal even though she knows how dangerous being a Phantomhive is, there must be a real reason to this decision. It could be just because she wanted to help her brother’s family, but Sensei generally goes deeper than that.
In any case, I doubt it’s a random narrative choice by Sensei to have Lizzie as the twins’ fiancée (not when Ed isn’t betrothed to anyone and neither were Frances and Vincent before they met Alexis and Rachel).
What’s clear is that neither Ciel nor Lizzie ever thought to ask why they were engaged so young (so they should ask someone at some point), but personally I do think it’s about more than just keeping the secret of the Watchdog’s identity within the family.
So, this post is a really long time in the making. A lot of my recent hiatus has been fine tuning my thoughts for this post. Consider this my final meta for Tokyo Ghoul if you would. This is something I’ve wanted to write about for awhile, because the vast majority of the fandom seems to be a misconception among the fandom about Furuta and Kaneki’s foiling, that Kaneki in fact has nothing in common with Furuta and is a hero to his villain. That the only shared aspect between them is loneliness and that Furuta is just an example of what Kaneki would be without loved ones around him.
However, as the 101 title page suggests the characters are actually deeply connected and intertwined to the point that when they become too close it can be difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. All of Kaneki’s unhealthy habits, perceptions, flaws are mirrored in Furuta, but in Furuta’s case they are framed and made much more clear. It’s only by acknowledging how much Kaneki and Furuta are alike you can see the whole of Kaneki’s character, the good and the bad. With a close and analytical reading you can pick out all these connections which is what I’m going to do below.
Hi Anon, no worries your English is great! And actually I already explained here.
To make this simple: Amaimon is neutral in the big Order vs Illuminati conflict, he’s just helping Mephisto with some stuff because he owes him (most likely because of his current vessel)…
…but he doesn’t care about whose side ends up winning.
Meanwhile, this is his reaction to Shiemi:
and to Mephisto once he confronted him about finally realizing about Shiemi’s powers:
So Amaimon’s anger in the scene above is not related to Shiemi but to Mephisto: he’s mad that Mephisto didn’t tell him sooner about Shiemi + he’s most likely also mad about the fact that Mephisto definitely intends on making him choose a side in this conflict (”you have little free time left”), despite the fact that Amaimon considers himself neutral.
And what conclusion does this lead you to? Amaimon wanted to stay neutral but now that he has realized about Shiemi’s powers, he knows that he won’t be able to just be an observer => so whoever Shiemi is, she’s basically the chain now locking Amaimon on the Order’s side.
I’m pretty sure you’re aware of all the theories about Shiemi and Shemihaza and it’s actually not very surprising to imagine a link between them and Amaimon who’s the King of Earth, especially when Shemihaza’s symbol is…
and Shiemi used to mention something called “the Garden of Amahara”.
Both Shemihaza and Amaimon come from Gehenna, we don’t know what kind of link they might have, but it could be that they’re pals or linked in some ways. And if that’s the case, then Shiemi being related to Shemihaza (being their host or nephilim) would mean that Amaimon’d have to keep an eye on her (either because that’s important to him or because he has no choice in the matter).
So I really don’t think Amaimon is in to hurt Shiemi: he already kicked her during the fight against Yukio & Satan, so we know he should give 0 care and yet now he’s angry after realizing who she is. To me that implies he’s clearly going to (have to) change his way of behaving towards her, whatever the reason is.
Also, I have to say this: the current arc is rather complicated and the main trio Rin/Shiemi/Yukio got blasted into three different directions (Yukio & Illuminati, Rin & the past, Shiemi & the Grigori). That’s why, before they can all meet again, they’ll first need the help of other characters and we may end up with Amaimon being quite relevant to Shiemi’s personal arc before the others catch up.
I hope this makes sense, please read the post I linked to, it may have additional explanations! Have a nice day Anon. :))
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH, could it be why???
Shemihaza seems to be the Grigori most involved with Section 13 (and look at what Lucifer is saying: “give me hope too”), so assuming that the theories about Shiemi having a link to them are true, maybe Amaimon is indebted towards Shemihaza the same way he feels indebted to Mephisto and is “helping him out” (because of the vessel he gained from Section 13)?
That could explain why he got mad at Mephisto upon realizing too late who Shiemi seemed to be, because he should have never treated her so roughly or something, since he owes her whole lineage???
It works no matter if Shiemi is a nephilim of Shemihaza or their next host. Just an idea. :3
midnight-in-town 